A 14-year-old boy was shot in the back outside a Chicago high school in the city’s Ashburn neighborhood Thursday night after his mother said he denied having gang ties when confronted by a group of boys with a gun.

Carmelita Rice told police her son, Javier Cameron, was passing by outside Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy around 7:45 p.m. Thursday to walk two girls home. NBC Chicago reports on his way, Javier was approached by two boys in a gangway who then asked if he belonged to a specific gang.

When Javier told the boys he didn’t belong to a gang, the boys allegedly punched him and pulled out a gun. ABC Chicago reports the gun jammed. Thinking the weapon was a cap gun, Javier turned to run away, but one of the boys fired.

“I think it’s a really cowardly thing, to shoot somebody in the back,” Rice said. “You really don’t have nothing better do with your life than approach kids?”

Rice said the bullet hit her son in the back, going through his liver, pancreas and small intestines and was lodged in his left side by his ribs. Javier was taken to a nearby hospital where his mother said “he’s in a lot of pain.”

Rice told CBS Chicago Javier has no gang ties and is a successful student-athlete at nearby Ralph Ellison High School, about 2 ½ miles away from Goode.

Along with Javier, five other people were shot around the city Thursday. Police have no one in custody for the teen’s shooting.